Archive shooting

Sumgait: evidence given by Seda Danielyan’s sister

On Sunday, at 6.30 p.m., without any bad suspicion, they returned home. Somebody knocked on the door and asked: “Are you Armenians?” My sister’s husband answered: “No, we are Azeris”, and they left. A few minutes later there was a phone call: “Kolya, are you at home?” he said “Yes”. They said: “Do not leave, in a few minutes we shall come after you”. 10-15 minutes later some 25 people stormed into their home and started to beat them up. Then they took them out into the backyard, killed the husband immediately, hit the child 5 times on the head, punched my sister severely. After the pogrom-makers left, others came and saw my sister moving. When she noticed they are approaching, she hid the kid behind her body. There was not a single untouched spot on her body; you could not recognize her face. How they killed her…

Viktoria Grigoryan, sister of murdered Seda Danielyan

Sumgait: evidence given by witnesses

The brothers were killed right in front of my eyes. This was going on during three hours – from 11 to 2 at night. All those three hours the brothers were getting beaten. Right under our balconyValeriy was trying to escape. They got him, threw him on the ground and killed brutally – with knives and stones. I could see how he was being trampled, and then they wanted to burn him. The right side of his head was burnt. Alik was being beaten 30 meters away from his brother, and then he was killed in the same brutal way.

Valerij Gasparyan, the former resident of Sumgait, a witness of the events.

Sumgait: Evidence given by sufferer Vitaly Danielyan

They entered the house and started to raid the flat. Then they took the parents’ passports and read a few words. One of them read out in good Russian “Danielyan”, stressing “yan”turned the page, it said “Armenian”. And he says: “Ok, this is enough”. Then they started to shout that they had come to drink blood. I was hit with a club first, and then – with an ????. Then I came to myself, tried to get my parents up, but my arm was broken, this is why I could not do it. I moved into the building entrance, started to ask the neighbors to call for an ambulance, but everybody was pushing me out and locking the doors immediately.

Danielyan Vitaliy, son of killed Nikolay and Seda Danielyans.

Sumgait. Pogroms сhronicle

This website was created with the assistance of the "Xenophobia Prevention Initiative" NGO

Prepared with the assistance of the Public Relations and Information Center of the Office of the President of Republic Armenia, Yerevan